A DESPERATELY SEEKING GOD
Exodus 32:7-14; Luke 15:1-10
“Rejoice with me, for I
have found my sheep that was lost.”
You may know that Tom Sullivan,
among other things, is a world champion wrestler; he’s noted in the Wrestling
Hall of Fame for 187 wins in a row. His life story so far is told in a 1982
movie called, “If You Could See What I Hear.” The film is dated, for sure, yet
if you can get past the long, curly hair on the men, that is; the plaids with
prints and bell-bottom jeans, you’ll find a parable of promise that is
timeless.
Sullivan lost the first 16 wrestling matches of his career, with a total time in the ring of 2:43! His
coach was exasperated with him. “Sullivan,” the coach said, “Go out there and
do the best job possible, and try not to be dead.” In this 17th match,
Sullivan’s opponent was a Russian man, big, bruising and brawny; his name was
Asimov. And Sullivan was doing as everybody expected: losing--badly. Then he
remembered what his coach had said, “Do the best job possible, and try not to
be dead.”
What you may not know was that Tom Sullivan is blind—a fact that even he didn’t
know until he was 8 years old! Half dead, Tom reached up and … popped out one
of his eyeballs—a prosthetic eye, of course! He threw it down on the mat. He
shouted at the Russian, “Stop! Stop!” and the Russian bellowed, “WHY?”
Tom replied, “Because I’ve
dropped my eye!” The rugged Russian looked down and saw the eyeball lying on the
mat, and promptly released his lunch. That was the end of the match. The record
books record the event as “Sullivan over Asimov by default.”[1]
Yet, Sullivan recalls it this way, “That was the day I learned to turn my
disadvantage into my advantage."
Every person in
the world has a disadvantage, some kind of handicap. There are all kinds of
handicaps for all kinds of people:
·
some disadvantages are blatant—physical
restrictions and deformities,
·
others are subtle, secret, seductive—addictions,
mental illness, diminishments;
·
others are downright bizarre—and they often get
turned into reality TV.
No one has to “be dead” in their
handicap, no one has to be lost. Why not? Because we have in our lives, as
close to us as the breath in our lungs, the Spirit of a God desperately seeking
us. No one has to remain lost in some treacherous wilderness;
If you’re not sure of the way
out, the first thing to do is to stop walking farther into it! Get a hold of
your feet! No one has to wait until life’s big broom comes along and uncovers you
embedded deep in the dirt; If you’re in a hole, stop digging! Drop your shovel!
If you’re being pummeled by a Russian wrestler named Asimov, well…well…don’t
throw your eyeball at him, but don’t keep fighting the battles on his terms. Stop!
Stop! Admit you’re lost!
That’s one thing those frisky
Pharisees in the scripture today were NOT about to do. They would not admit
they were lost; they would much rather cast aspersions on the sinners, tax
collectors and Jesus. Look at verse 2: tell me what you hear in there: The
Pharisees and scribes—they think they’re winners,
but they’re whiners! They think
they’re great law-abiders, but
they’re nothing more than grumblers! They
may know the law inside and out, but they do not see what Jesus hears. They were
lost and they did not know it.
The tax collectors, the
sinners—they’re the ones who knew how to turn their disadvantage into their
advantage: they heard the words of hope; they accepted the invitation from
Jesus to sit down, eat together, and learn about their God from the master. Jesus
could see—and hear—what was going on all around him—the whining and the
wondering; the grumbling and the gazing—As he always did, he used the
opportunity to teach ALL of them. “This is the nature of God,” he said to them,
“in words you can understand.” Jesus talks to them about things they value, and
then masterfully turns the disadvantage of being lost into the advantage of
being found.
No matter what your situation is,
no matter how “lost” you are; how bleak the horizon; how blinding the solution,
turn to God; ask God to show you the way “to do your best job possible, and not
be dead.”
Even a little sparrow knows how
to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. On Friday morning, Stella managed to
get in the house with a sparrow. The little bird escaped the little gray jaws
of death and flew onto the top of the laundry-room doorway. Stella, meanwhile,
was spinning around on the carpet below, trying to climb the walls, grumbling
and whining and complaining the whole time.
I reached for the trembling bird,
but she flew away, all around the room. But, she came back and landed on the
doorway again. Slowly I reached up, closer, closer; she did not move. I didn’t
really think I had a chance of getting her…it’s not like I am a bird whisperer,
or anything like that… Gently I took the
bird in my hand—she did not fight me…
·
not a flutter,
·
not a peck,
·
not a tremble
·
and then she was free—the way God created her to
be.
Better to be enfolded in the
gentleness of a loving hand than gored in the mouth of a merciless cat. God has
a tender, personal concern for us: we are lost sheep in the midst of wolves;
but know this: the shepherd is coming for us—look at verse 5: “And when he
finds it, he puts it on his shoulders.” As often as we have heard this parable,
have you ever realized that we are not in the role of the searcher? That role
is God’s.
We are the lost object—lost not
in the sense of not knowing where we are – though that could also be the
case—but in the underdog role of being the object of another’s search. That is,
we are lost TO someone, who is, I can assure you, seeking us. That someone is
our desperately seeking God. And God will not stop seeking you and me, until
God finds us. God sent his son
·
to find us,
·
to save us;
·
to turn our disadvantage of being
o
the lost,
o
the scorned,
o
the sinful,
o
the blind
o
the grumbling
into being the found—over each
one of us there is much rejoicing in heaven—and on earth—
Whatever your disadvantage…make
God your advantage. Use God, include him in every part of your life, worship
and praise him—yeah, you can even complain to him, throw down your eyeball
before him but … but … pick it up again—those things don’t impress God very
much. Get on with your life in the Lord, turn to him. God knows how to turn
your disadvantage to his advantage—in the process we learn that It is God’s
intention-- and indeed the reason he created each one of us— to be one of those
saints whom we meet in
school, in the choir, on the street, in the store,
in church, by the sea, in the house next door; whether rich or poor, advantaged
or disadvantaged, God means for each one of us to be one of his saints, too!
Isn’t
it amazing—the blind can see, the deaf can hear, the lame can walk, sinners can
become saints—all because we have a desperately seeking God,
·
who will not stop,
·
who will not rest,
·
who will not give up on us
·
who will wrestle for our soul with any devil
that appears
until
all are safely home again… and our names are written forever in the win column,
each of us living in God’s great hall of fame: heaven. Let’s rejoice and say, Amen.
September 15, 2013
The First Parish
Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Rev Donna Lee Muise,
Pastor
